NMA2009_0023_0124
Title: A message stick held in the National Museum of Australia
Description: A rectangular length of wood which has been incised on four surfaces with diamond shapes and horizontal bands.
Creator of Object: Unknown
Item type: message stick in a collection
Dimension 1: 133mm Dimension 2: 17mm Dimension 3: 11mm
Materials: wood
Source types: museum collection
Institution/Holder file: The National Museum of Australia object identifier: 2009.0023.0124
Collector: Herbert E Read collection
Media copyright: The National Museum of Australia
URL institution: http://collectionsearch.nma.gov.au/ce/message%20stick?&object=138093
IRN: 138093
Notes: Can't find the object in the online catalogue (OT) According to NMA: "The Herbert E Read collection of 386 Indigenous and historical objects includes baskets, bags, mats, bark paintings, painted ornaments, clubs, spears, boomerangs and necklaces. These objects were all acquired by Read during his work at the Point McLeay mission (later known as Raukkan) in South Australia and the Warruwi (Warrawi) mission on South Goulburn Island, off the Arnhem Land coast, during the early twentieth century. The collection also includes some of the different types of glass slides which Read used in his missionay activities. Read (1875-1950) spent most of his adult life working on Aboriginal missions in different parts of Australia. He worked at the Point McLeay Mission from 1906 to 1911, 1914 to 1917, 1919 to 1925 and 1938 to 1945, and from 1925 to 1928 he worked at the Warruwi (Warrawi) Methodist mission. Read was also a keen photographer during these periods. Read's collection is significant as a rare assemblage of the diversity of Indigenous objects being made at the two missions in the early part of the twentieth century, including material made for sale. The significance of the collection is enhanced through it containing objects which are early examples of the coiled basketry technique introduced into Arnhem Land during the 1920s."
Media Files:
Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup